“White people have not always been ‘white,’ nor will they always be ‘white.’ It is a political alliance. Things will change.”

{Amoja Three Rivers}

I begin with whiteness because all of the other social colors define themselves by it. In fact, the other social colors exist for it. Whiteness depends on blackness, for example, for it is the existence of blackness, synonymous with evil and darkness, that calls for whiteness. Whiteness is then needed to right the wrong and to stamp out the darkness.

In order for the socially constructed white identity to be the standard of good, there must be one or more identities that are the definition of bad. Whiteness is then seen as a necessity and then divinized. But, you can’t have one without the other. We cannot have whiteness without the “other.”

Or, whiteness is defined as exclusively good, permitting no other social colors to join its group. “If you’re white, you’re right. If you’re black, stay back.”

James Baldwin called it “the lie of whiteness.” And I would agree but I would push us just a little bit further. I would call blackness and with it, all the other social colors a lie. Consequently, I declare that the social construct of race is a lie, that there is no truth it, no redeeming characteristics or qualities.

I will never understand why we believed the lie to begin with or how we traded our humanity for hue. I join with Charles Chestnut who asked in 1889, “What is a white man? ” No, really what is a white man? Who is a white man?

Because God’s purpose for humanity is not color- coded: “If you’re white…” No, God’s purpose is eternal, not based on physical features tied to social contracts. “If you’re black…”